Ann Arbor, MI
not associated with the university include
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of
Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw
County. It is the state’s seventh largest city
with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000
Census, of which 36,892 (32%) are university
or college students. The city, which is part
of the Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI CSA, is
named after the spouses of the city’s found-
ers and for the stands of trees in the area.
Ann Arbor was founded in January 1824 by
John Allen and Elisha Rumsey, both of whom
were land speculators. On May 25, 1824, the
town plot was registered with Wayne County
as “Annarbour”. The city became the seat of
Washtenaw County in 1827, and was incor-
porated as a village in 1833. The town be-
came a regional transportation hub in 1839
with the arrival of the Michigan Central Rail-
road, and was chartered as a city in 1851.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained
a reputation as a center for liberal politics.
During the 20th century, the economy of
Ann Arbor underwent a gradual shift from a
manufacturing base to a service and technol-
ogy base, which accelerated in the 1970s and
1980s.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor is home to the University of
Michigan, established in 1837. As the domi-
nant institution of higher learning in the city
and one of the top public universities in the
world, the university provides Ann Arbor with
a distinct college-town atmosphere. The uni-
versity shapes Ann Arbor’s economy signifi-
cantly as it employs about 30,000 workers,
including about 7,500 in the medical center.
The city’s economy is also centered on high-
technology, with several companies drawn
to the area by the university’s research and
development money, and by its graduates.
On the other hand, Ann Arbor has increas-
ingly found itself grappling with the effects of
sharply rising land values and gentrification,
as well as urban sprawl stretching far into
the outlying countryside.
Attractions
Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions and
events are sponsored by the University of
Michigan. Several performing arts groups
and facilities are on the university’s campus,
as are museums dedicated to art, archaeol-
ogy, and natural history and sciences (see
Museums at the University of Michigan).
Regional and local performing arts groups
the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre; the Arbor Opera
Theater; the Ann Arbor Symphony Orches-
tra; the Ann Arbor Ballet Theater; the Ann
Arbor Civic Ballet (established in 1954 as
Michigan’s first chartered ballet company);
and Performance Network, which operates a
downtown theater frequently offering new or
nontraditional plays.
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, located
in a renovated and expanded historic down-
town fire station, contains more than 250 in-
teractive exhibits featuring science and tech-
nology. Multiple art galleries exist in the city,
notably in the downtown area and around
the University of Michigan campus. Aside
from a large restaurant scene in the Main
Street, South State Street, and South Uni-
versity Avenue areas, Ann Arbor ranks first
among U.S. cities in the number of booksell-
ers and books sold per capita. The Ann Arbor
District Library maintains four branch out-
lets in addition to its main downtown build-
ing; in 2008 a new branch building replaced
the branch located in Plymouth Mall. This
new branch is called the Traverwood Branch,
and opened on June 30, 2008.
 consin Governor Lee Dreyfus’s description of
Madison, Wisconsin. Ann Arbor sometimes
appears on citation indexes as an author,
instead of a location, often with the academic
degree MI, a misunderstanding of the abbre-
viation for Michigan.

Events
Several annual events – many of them cen-
tered on performing and visual arts – draw
visitors to Ann Arbor. One such event is the
Ann Arbor Art Fairs, a set of four concurrent
juried fairs held on downtown streets, which
began in 1960. Scheduled on Wednesday
through Saturday in the third week of July,
the fairs draw upward of half a million visi-
tors. One event that is not related to visual
and performing arts is Hash Bash, held on
the first Saturday of April, ostensibly in sup-
port of the reform of marijuana laws. It has
been celebrated since 1971.

Fun Facts
A person from Ann Arbor is called an “Ann
Arborite”, and many long-time residents call Customer Service Center
themselves “townies”. The city itself is often (Located diagonally across the street
called A² (“A-squared”) or A2 (“A two”), and, from City Hall)
less commonly, Tree Town. Recently, some
City Center Building, 1st Floor
youths have taken to calling Ann Arbor Ace
220 East Huron
Deuce or simply The Deuce. With tongue-
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
in-cheek reference to the city’s liberal politi-
(734) 994-2700
cal leanings, some occasionally refer to Ann
Fax: (734) 994-1765

Ann Arbor, MI
Arbor as The People’s Republic of Ann Arbor
or 25 square miles surrounded by reality,
E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
the latter phrase being adapted from Wis-